Fabric or layers of material are often formed, sealed, adhered, or positioned so as to overlie or underlie one another to thereby in combination form a laminate or laminated material. For laminating fabric, these layers often involve two rolls of fabric mounted or positioned to unwind so that the webs of material being unwound are combined in an overlying and/or underlying relationship to form a laminate fabric. These laminators when used in a production line, however, can have problems when one or more of the webs breaks, is damaged, or has problems associated with a smooth and continuous production line.
Additionally, tension control of moving webs of fabric is commonly monitored and controlled by the use of a dancer system. Many types of dancer systems have been developed over the years. A basic form of such a system, for example, includes a web of fabric being transported along a conveying system such as rollers, rolls, or conveyor belts being driven by motors. A dancer roll is preferably positioned in line with the conveying system so that the web passes over or engages the dancer roll. The dancer roll is preferably connected to a distal end of a dancer support arm and extends outwardly therefrom. The proximal end of the dancer support arm is preferably pivotally connected to a fixed position or mount so that the dancer roll "dances" or moves along the pivotal direction of the dancer support arm with the varying tension from the web, e.g., moving at different speeds, and thereby, in essence, follows the lead of the fabric web. This dancer system, however, also has several problems associated therewith. For example, the inertia of the dancer can cause the tension control to generally be non-linear with little dynamic response. In other words, when the dancer is being pulled up by the web of material positioned thereon, additional tension is required to start the dancer moving. This problem can become worse, for example, if the mass of the dancer is increased or the arm lengthens. Also, the dancer system provides little or no flexibility for readily adjusting tension within a system such as when a portion of a manufacturing line has problems or goes down.